Gas turbines are continuously being modified to provide increased efficiency and performance. These modifications include the ability to operate at higher temperatures and under harsher conditions, which often requires material modifications, and/or coatings, or cooling cores to protect components from such temperatures and conditions.
One modification to increase performance and efficiency involves forming hot gas path components or gas turbine components that are particularly subject to high temperatures, and thus require particular attention with regard to cooling, such as, but not limited to, airfoils, buckets (blades), nozzles (vanes), shrouds, combustor liners, and heat shields. Although a number of these components can utilize conventional cooling cores, such cores are expensive.